Feeling Thankful...

Hello crafty friends :)

Thanksgiving weekend is coming up, here in Canada, and I was able to celebrate the joy of creating with the Recreation Therapy department again, at the rehabilitation centre where I work.

We held a "thankful" card workshop on Tuesday evening.

I usually work up three demo cards, and pre-cut all the materials, so the participants can stamp, ink and glue to their hearts' content. I love it when they take my ideas and run, making a creation all their own. 

So here are the samples, which will be sent out to my family tomorrow! Hopefully Canada Post cooperates...

One great big Hero Arts maple leaf stamp, inked with Distress inks and spritzed, then stamped onto small white card-stock squares. No two alike!

Started with a piece of white watercolor paper, smooshed on distress inks in three colours, then stamped the leaf images in black. The leaves are from Newton's Nook Designs. The sentiment stamp is Close to My Heart.

 

Falling leaves punched from one more distress inked panel. The sentiment is the same Newton's Nook Design. The side-stitched rectangles are from Lil Inker Designs.

To all my Canadian pals, enjoy the long weekend. To my American friends, see you in November!

Make some cards for the Caring Hearts Card Drive!

Happy crafting,       

Caroline

P.S. A few more examples, but BAD photos...

Midnight Musing at Dynamic Duos #81

Good Saturday morning, crafty friends!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and survived the craziness of Black Friday.

Time for a new challenge from the Dynamic Duos:

As it's the fifth Saturday this month, it is "Your Choice" week, where we specify one colour and you get to choose the other. Midnight Muse is a nice deep blue (altho not so dark as navy).

I chose to go with a complementary color, Goldrush, a soft orangey-yellow.

Here's the card:

This beautiful stamp is a rubber-cling one I won last year. I am a strictly clear acrylic stamper, myself. I find using non-see-through images very challenging. This one is nice and square, however, and fits perfectly into a Stitched Mats-Rectangle from Lil'Inker Designs. The sentiment is also from Lil'Inker.
The snowflake die is a Die-namic from My Favorite Things. And that sequin in the centre? Started out a different colour, but was tinted with an alcohol marker.

So, off you go to the Dynamic Duos blog, to see what colours the other DT gals have picked.

Anne Marie Hile

Annette Elliott

Angel Johns

Cindy Brumbaugh

Holly Endress

JoAnn Burnham

Julie Gearinger

Michelle Bala

Sarah Fleming 

Tenia Nelson

Here's how to participate in the Dynamic Duos challenges.

1. Any project is welcome...paper crafts, scrapbooking, digital, or crafts...
2. Please ONLY use the two colours listed for your project. Neutrals are welcome.
3. Combine us with as many other challenges as you would like, except other colour challenges.
4. Please add our graphic to your blog with a link back to us.
5. Any offensive or inappropriate posts will be deleted.

Hope to see you link up this week!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock in Colonial White, Goldrush and Pacifica; DP in Pacifica.

Inks: Goldrush, Pacifica

Copic Marker

Dies: Stitched Mats-Rectangles/Lil'Inker Designs; snowflake/My Favorite Things

Stamps: Hero Arts and Lil'Inker Designs

Wink of Stella glitter pen

So flippin' happy...

...it's finally SUMMER!

This quick little card was made to celebrate Lil'Inker Design's Sunny Days challenge.

The inspiration is this photo montage:

I chose to focus on the blue skies, bucket of flip flops and the pin-wheel.

I created the sunshine/pinwheel with a circle of flip-flops in yellow and orange craft foam. The flip flop die works so well with this material--you can really see the signature stitched detail.

They are one of my favorite little die sets--so many ways to combine the elements for fun embellishments!

I glued them to a daisy-shaped flower, using baker's twine from The Twinery for the centre.

The background sky is a rubber stamp from Hero Arts.

Some torn kraft paper forms the beach, with the greeting pieced together from two Lil'Inker stamp sets, Darling Diamonds and Flip-flop Sentiment set.

Bring on those sunny skies! And check back to the Lil'Inker blog for a new release of must-have goodies, later this month.

Happy crafting! Also planting, mowing, cycling and all the other great things summer brings!

Caroline

Peace on Earth

In just under the wire with an entry to this week's Dynamic Duos Two-Color Challenge, which is to use gold and black:

Now Caroline, I hear you saying, I see black in that card, but no gold!  You would be right.

This beauty of a stamp arrived in the mail yesterday. 

It was a prize from the recent OnLine Card Classes Holiday Card Workshop. It is a Hero Arts cling stamp. I had not used such a thing before. Gave up on rubber stamps a long time ago because of difficulties lining things up which is much easier with clear acrylic stamps. However, this stamp gives a beautiful impression, and as it is basically all right-angles, no difficulty with getting it straight.

The above card was my first take, based on Kristine Werner's example from the Online class.I stamped in black Memento ink, then sponged on three shades of ink (CTMH Pansy, Crystal Blue and Sweet Leaf) to give the sky a northern lights look. The stitched mat is a die from Lil'Inker, as is the sentiment.

My blogger acquaintance Amy T reminded me this week with her entry that background stamps look great with heat-embossing, so take #2 took shape:

I stamped with Versamark and heat-set gold embossing powder. Again added some shading at the top of the image for a more dark-of-winter look. Great for tomorrow's Winter Solstice, right? Less is definitely more with a wonderful image like this...

I'll also be linking this up to Annette Allen's Linky party.

So final countdown with making, baking, wrapping, caroling all the way...

Happy holidays, friends!

Caroline